BUSI 520 MARKETING MANAGEMENT GROUP PROJECT – APPLE WATCH

1 BUSI 520 MARKETING MANAGEMENT GROUP PROJECT – APPLE WATCH Marketing Management Group Project (MMGP) Instructor Instituton BUSI 520 - D02 Group 1 Introduction The purpose of this group project is to analyze the marketing strengths and weaknesses of the Apple Watch. Apple introduced the smartwatch in 2015 with functions that track not only time, but also heart rate, fitness goals, checking text messages and email. Since the development of the watch, Apple has introduced two other series, leading the development down an advanced technological path. It is highly important to understand the marketing approach for device that has the name brand such as Apple. Apple has kept their marketing consistent with advertisements that are simple. This paper will give an overview of the Apple Company and the development of the Apple Watch. As well as, highlighting the social and culture factors, price, competitors, marketing strategy, and demographics for the Apple Watch. Internal and External Marketing Variables for Apple Watch Provide a description of the product/service and a brief history of the firm Apple revealed their brand smartwatch in April of 2015. Steve Jobs, one of the originating founders died in 2011, and Apple had not revealed any new technology products since. Tim Cook took the place of Mr. Jobs as CEO, and with the introduction of his new position, he also revealed the Apple Watch, along with the iPhone 6. Each time an updated iPhone is introduced, people get very excited to learn about the new features. Consumers were very excited over the hype of the unveiling of the watch. The watch emulated the users iPhone by linking together and could access text messages and emails without having to look at their phone. Jony Ive, Chief Design Officer is responsible for all the designs at Apple, and is the creator of the watch (Apple, 2018). Once the watch was introduced, the sale of the watch was only done through the Apple website, until June of 2015 where the watch was received in retail stores. Apple decided to sell the watch online due to the limited supplies and “to be able to give the consumers the model they wanted earlier and faster”[Wak15]. The sales of the Apple watch extended over to retail stores in Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan [Unk15]. The Apple watch has been described as wearing a computer on your wrist [Ber15]. The Apple watch has many functions, a heart rate monitor, fitness tracker; GPS that is linked from the iPhone with turn notifications. There are different editions of the watch to fit into everyone’s budget. The sport watch is the most affordable, which is available in ten models, which all have anodized aluminum cases. The sport edition ranges from $350-$399. The mid-tier is available in twenty editions with a retina display that is